Tboung Khmum Administrative Facilities Open

• 25 July 2017
• Local News
• 11499 Views

Three years after the province was officially established, the Tboung Khmum administration office facilities were officially inaugurated in May with full completion slated for early 2018.

In early May 2017, the Cambodian government put the Tboung Khmum Provincial Hall and other related facilities including officials’ dormitory building into official use. The facilities included a 26km road network across the provincial town, a clean water reservoir that can handle 3 million cubic metres and a clean water treatment plan that can produce 208 cubic metres of clean water per hour.

The inaugurated facilities are located in Srolop Commune, Tboung Khmum District, Tboung Khmum Province, about 200 km north-east from the capital Phnom Penh.

The province was formed when Kampong Cham Province was split in two by a royal decree signed in 2013 for the purpose of improving administrative efficiency in the large province. With a size of 5,250 square kilometres, the kingdom’s 25th province borders the provinces of Kampong Cham to the west, Kratié to the north, Prey Veng to the south, and shares an international border with Vietnam to the east. Its capital and largest city is Suong. The province\’s name consists of two words in Khmer, tboung (gem, precious jewel) and khmum (bee), which together mean \”amber\”.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Provincial Administrative Hall and other facilities on 9 May, H.E. Prach Chan, the former Tboung Khmum provincial governor reported that the province is divided into six administrative districts, 1 city, 62 communes, 2 sangkats and 873 villages with a total of 184,000 households or 844.000 persons.

After the province was officially created, the government launched a master plan for the provincial town on a 2,000 hectare landmass which paved the way for the construction of various provincial facilities to kick off in January 2015.

While the remaining facilities are expected to be fully completed in early 2018, the province opened its first university building called Heng Samrin Tboung Khmum University in February 2016 following the ground breaking for another three educational buildings. Today, the province has 23 high schools, 54 secondary schools and 395 primary schools.

Presiding over the inauguration ceremony, after also presiding at the groundbreaking ceremony in 2015, Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen explained that the province’s establishment is to serve people’s needs and requirements as well as to improve administrative efficiency.

“Kompong Cham province has a large area and population – two million over the whole country’s population 15 million. There is a need therefore to divide the province into two,” he said. “In the past, people had had to travel to the provincial town of Kompong Cham to seek administrative services. For people in Mehmot, it is very long distance to travel there. With Tboung Khmum province established, they can benefit from public services closer to home […]. We are moving administrative offices and services closer to our people.”

He also hinted that, after having a university in operation, China will soon build a hospital which will serve as a big referral medical centre. “Once it is done, our people will not need to send patients on a long journey to Kompong Cham. We are addressing our people’s requirements.”

According to the prime minister, the government has already laid plans for the construction of education facilities for the 2017-18 school year. That will include some facilities for primary, junior and senior secondary educations
People living in most parts of the province will also enjoy cheap electricity and running water tariffs. For electricity, consumption of ten KWH per month will be billed at only Riel 480 per KWH. Consumption of 50 KWH and/or less will be billed Riel 610/KWH. Consumption of more than 50 KWH/month will pay 770 Riel for those connected to the national electricity transmission lines and Riel 790 to private lines. For running water, it will cost only Riel 400/cubic metres for use of 3 cubic metres and below starting from 15 May.

Cambodia is now made up of 25 provinces and 4 cities covering a landmass of 181,035 square metres.